


A Prompt Response

by alettepegasus



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2020-03-26
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:47:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23337886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alettepegasus/pseuds/alettepegasus
Summary: Each chapter is a response to a different one-word fic prompt.--1. "Anniversary" - It's the anniversary of Micah's death, and now Glimmer's mother is gone too. Still: she's not alone.2. "Cooking" - Adora tries to bake a cake for Catra’s birthday. It goes about as well as you’d expect.
Relationships: Adora & Catra (She-Ra), Adora & Glimmer (She-Ra)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 67





	1. Anniversary

**Author's Note:**

> I felt a little weird about publishing several fics shorter than 1000 words, but I also wanted a place to save these before they're completely lost to the sands of Tumblr time... so this was my solution. (Also, the title is kind of a joke since I am anything but prompt in my answers to prompts. XD)
> 
> It's marked complete since each chapter stands alone, but I'll update as I (slowly) answer more prompts!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the anniversary of Micah's death, and now Glimmer's mother is gone too. Still: she's not alone.

“Glimmer?”

Adora poked her head into library, fighting the urge to sneeze at the musty scent that immediately assaulted her nose. There was a frankly absurd number of libraries dotting the castle; all kept in pristine, dust-free condition, both shelves and books gleaming. This room, however, felt… old. It was smaller, almost cozy. Here, there were papers strewn haphazardly across a desk, books left open on small tables, and here and there pages of handwritten notes stuffed into stacks of books waiting to be replaced onto dusty shelves. In a castle full of shimmering, perfect magic, the room felt… lived in. 

But it hadn’t been. 

Not for a very long time.

A stifled sneeze drew Adora’s attention to a chair facing the window, and she stepped further into the room. 

“Glimmer?” she repeated, a cloud of pink hair—more tamed than she was used to—edging into her vision as she approached the chair. “Bow and I have been looking _everywhere_ for you. What are...”

She trailed off as Glimmer’s face came into view. The young queen sat with her knees drawn to her chest, blinking down at a pendant with eyes more red and damp than could be explained by a single sneeze. Her fingers rubbed absently across the smooth, shiny face of the pendant.

“Hey, Adora.” The words were watery and miserable.

“Glimmer.” Adora dropped to crouch in front of the chair and gently laid a hand on Glimmer’s knee. “What’s wrong?”

The pendant glinted in the light that filtered through the window, catching their attention.

“It was my dad’s,” Glimmer said. Adora felt her heart drop. “This—it’s—” her voice shook, and she took a breath to steady it. “Today’s the anniversary of the day he died.”

Oh, no. Adora swallowed past a mountain of guilt.

“And it’s the first time… without her?”

Glimmer closed her eyes and nodded.

Both her parents. The Horde had taken both of Glimmer’s parents from her. If Adora had just been _better,_ a better She-Ra, a better friend, a better _person—_

No. 

This wasn’t about her. Not now.

She rose from the ground and sat on the large, cushioned arm of the chair, pulling Glimmer against her side and wrapping a comforting arm around her. Glimmer gave a shaky sigh.

“My mom… she would bring me in here, his old study, and just… tell me stories about him. I think it was to make her feel better as much as me.” She gave a soft laugh. “They were so ridiculous we usually ended up laughing.” 

There was a pause, both of them watching motes of dust drift through a golden beam of afternoon light. 

“I was too young to remember so many things about him, and without her, I’m—” her voice wobbled again. “I’m afraid i’m going to forget.”

Adora’s heat clenched, and she rubbed Glimmer’s arm in a comforting motion.

“You won’t forget him.”

A pause. “I wish I could be so sure.”

“Tell me, then.”

Glimmer raised her head. “Huh?”

“Tell me the stories about your dad,” Adora said. “We can both remember him.”

Glimmer brought a hand up to wipe away the dampness forming at her eyes. “Okay,” she said. “Okay.” There was a slight pause as she stared in thought, then gave a quiet, watery laugh. “Oh, you’re gonna love this one...”


	2. Cooking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora tries to bake a cake for Catra’s birthday. It goes about as well as you’d expect.

_ This, _ Adora thought to herself as she blew a strand of flour-covered hair away from her eyes with an aggravated puff of air,  _ had been a terrible idea. _

It seemed like a  _ great  _ idea earlier. Catra had just learned when her birthday was. Catra had also learned that she really, really liked sweet things. Not that she’d admit it,of course, but the dilated pupils when she wolfed down her first dessert and the way the kitchen’s candy bowl always seemed a little less full after her nightly patrol had been more than enough for Adora. Bow nearly choked when Catra, whose previous drink order consisted of coffee “black as night and bitter as my soul,” showed up to morning meetings nonchalantly sipping on something that was more cream and sugar than actual coffee. 

Glimmer and Bow had made Adora a cake for her “birthday,” even if the date  _ was _ just a guess, so why not return the favor?

Well, that question had answered itself pretty thoroughly.

Adora surveyed the flour-covered kitchen, trying and failing to clean her sticky hands on her apron before wiping at her sweaty forehead with the back of her wrist. Something smeared.  _ Ugh. _

All because Glimmer’s aunt  _ had _ to knit a sweater for Catra, and  _ had  _ to ask when her birthday was.

\- 

_ Catra blinked. “I don’t know.” _

_ “I’m afraid you’ll have to try harder than that, dear,” Castaspella said with a laugh. “If you don’t tell me your birthday I’ll simply give it to you for Winterfest. Although that’s such a long way off...” _

_ “No, she really doesn’t know,” Adora broke in. “The Horde brought us in when we were babies, and we never knew about birthdays. Neither of us know when we were born.” _

_ Castaspella gasped in horror, bringing a hand to her chest. “Oh, you poor children!” Adora felt Catra bristle by her side. “Why didn’t you tell me! Here, I know a very simple spell—” Before either of them could explain how much Catra hated magic, Castaspella lightly touched their shoulders.  _

_ “Let’s see,” she muttered, “seven thousand, three hundred and two… Why, Catra, yours is only two days away! And Adora, yours is…” _

_ She barely heard. Two? Only two days? She had planned to do something nice for Catra, like Bow and Glimmer had for her, but in months—not days. What could she even do? _

_ A cake. She should be able to learn how to do that, at least. How hard could it be? _

-

Pretty hard, as it turned out—in both the literal  _ and  _ figurative sense. She poked at the misshapen slab that lay on a plate before her. Not even frosting could disguise  _ that. _

It was an unmitigated, indisputable, irreparable disaster. 

Which must have been why Catra chose that moment to poke her head into the kitchen. 

“Don’t!” the squeaked protest escaped Adora before she could stop herself, sudden and loud. Catra jumped.

“Adora? What the—” Her eyes swept the disaster area before her. “What  _ happened? _ ”

Well, too late now. “Nothing good,” she sighed, leaning her elbows on the counter in front of her and letting her head hang low as she deflated. Something was soaking into her sleeve from the countertop. Her feet hurt. 

The mighty She-Ra, laid low by a cake recipe. 

“Did a bomb go off in here?” Catra asked, stepping carefully around the sticky patches and clouds of flour that littered the kitchen floor.

“I was trying to bake,” Adora mumbled.

_ “Why?” _ Catra sounded genuinely horrified, which would have been almost offensive if Adora had heard it several hours ago.

Instead, she pushed off from the counter with another sigh, mustering up a fake smile as she gestured to the… thing… on the plate behind her. 

“Ta-da.”

Catra stared.

“You frosted a rock.”

Hours of frustration solidified, and Adora narrowed her eyes. “I will kill you.”

Catra poked experimentally at the mound of hardening frosting. “I think you’re already trying.”

“It was supposed to be for your birthday, you jerk.”

“Right,” Catra said, trying to shake a glob of frosting free from one claw, “Because nothing says ‘happy birthday’ like attempted homicide.”

“Oh, come on,” Adora said. “It isn’t that bad.”

They stared in silence at the misshapen mound. Catra raised an eyebrow.

“Okay, maybe it is.”

“Yep.”

“Argh!” Adora raised her hands to her head in frustration, then pulled short when she remembered their current, sugar-sticky state. “Stupid recipe—stupid cake! I just wanted to give you a stupid gift for your stupid birthday—”

“Oh, trust me,” Catra said with a wicked grin, “Seeing you screw up this spectacularly? Best gift I could have asked for.”

“ _ Catra.”  _ Adora dropped her head back down to the counter with a heavy sigh. “Look,” she said a moment later, raising her head enough to stare at a wall. Somehow she’d managed to get frosting all the way over there, too. Impressive. “This is your first real birthday outside the Horde. First birthday ever, really. I just… wanted to do something nice.”

“You did.”

Adora looked up to see Catra staring at the counter, absently tracing a pattern into a small cloud of flour. “I’m being an ass about it, but… it means a lot that you tried. For me.” 

A beat.

“Even if you really,  _ really _ failed—”

In the next instant, Adora had stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Catra. She jumped slightly with a short, startled inhale, then relaxed and returned the hug.

“Happy birthday, Catra.”

Catra laughed slightly, and the breeze of it stirred Adora’s hair. “Thanks. Sap.”

A pause.

“You have frosting in your hair, you know.”

A heavy, tired sigh.

“I know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was so fun to write. XD Disasters, the both of them!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! If you want to send a one-word prompt, send me an ask at [adoras-last-braincell](http://adoras-last-braincell.tumblr.com/). (Just bear in mind that it might take me a long time to get to it - I still have about five to go, and I am not speedy. XD)


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